YC boys win 4th straight title
GILBERT — As the Yuma Catholic boys soccer team was being presented its hardware, the public address announcer at Williams Field High School wondered aloud if the Shamrocks’ trophy cabinet could even fit another. It was only kind of a joke. “I think they’re going to build a new one,” YC coach Ralph Evans said. “We are running out of room. But hey, what a problem to have, huh?”
For the fourth year in a row, the Shamrocks are state champions. And this title-game victory — 5-1 over Arizona College Prep, the tournament’s top seed but only technically — was the most decisive of them all.
The Shamrocks — technically the two seed, but the clear favorite to anybody aware of their recent history — needed only 4 minutes, 37 seconds to jump in front, and sucked any and all potential drama out of the game by tacking on three more goals before the first half was even two-thirds over.
Eleuterio Gutierrez scored the first goal (and went on to add the fifth later), Ramon Urbano scored in the 18th minute, Ernie Gutierrez in the 22nd minute and Ed Morales in the 24th.
“Those two goals right off, that just set the tone of the game,” Evans said. “It put a big mountain in front of (AZ College Prep).”
The Knights (15-1 AIA) have lost just two games the last two seasons. Both came against Yuma Catholic.
“They’re a great team, it’s just that we were just super aggressive in the beginning and I guess we just broke their spirits and they couldn’t come back from that,” Urbano said.
For Urbano, the title was his fourth. He’s one of several seniors — as well as defender Stockton Rush and goalie Rush Vance — who have been on the varsity roster since they were freshman, when YC started this historic run with a 1-0 victory over Coronado in the Division III title game.
The next year, YC edged Cortez by a goal. Last year, they controlled NFL Yet from start to finish in a 3-0 win. And then came Saturday’s performance, which Evans deemed most impressive.
“I think they were very driven, they were very focused, they knew what they wanted to do and they went out and just did it right from the start,” Evans said.
Jonah Franco and Junior Mendez had two assists each, meaning six different Shamrocks were directly a part of at least one goal. More important to Evans was that everybody got to a chance to step on the field.
“How blessed am I that I can go into a state championship game and make sure very kid on my bench gets game time?” Evans said. “And I have a huge bench this year. So that speaks volumes for the starters who created that opportunity for them.”
Comfortable margins of victory were the norm for the Shamrocks this season, as only three of their games were decided by fewer than three goals. Evans mentioned that Friday’s night semifinal win, 3-1 over Casteel, was one that “probably took two years off (his) life,” so he appreciated the less-stressful nature of Saturday’s.
The win gave YC its seventh boys soccer state championship overall, and with only a few senior starters on this year’s team, there’s no telling when this current run may end.
“It ends when I finally just fall over,” Evans joked.